16 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The first whaling expedition in Nantucket " was undertaken," says 

 Macy,* " by some of the original purchasers of the island ; the circum- 

 stances of which are banded down by tradition, and are as follows: 

 A whale, of the kind called ' scragg,' came into the harbor and con- 

 tinued there three days. This excited the curiosity of the people, and led 

 them to devise measures to preveiit his return out of the harbor. They 

 accordingly invented and caused to be wrought for them a harpoon, 

 with which they attacked and killed the whale. This first success en- 

 couraged them to undertake whaling as a permanent business; whales 

 being at that time numerous in the vicinity of the shores." 



In 1G72 the islanders, evidently desirous of making further progress 

 in this pursuit, recorded a memorandum of a proposed agreement with 

 one James Loper, in which it is said that the said James "doth lugage 

 to Carrey on a Designe of Whale Catching on the Island of Nantucket that 

 IS to say James lugages to be a third in all Kespects, and som of the 

 Town lugages also to carrey on the other two thirds with him in like 

 manner — the town doth also consent that first one company shall begin, 

 and afterwards the rest of the freeholders or any of them have Liberty 

 to set up another Company provided they make a tender to those free- 

 holders that have no share in the first company and if any refuse the 

 rest may go on themselves, and the town doth engage that no other 

 Company shall be allowed hereafter ; also, whoever kill any whales, of 

 the Company or Companies aforesaid, they are to pay to the Town for 

 every such whale five shillings and for the Incoragement of the said 

 JamesLoper the Town doth granthimtenacresof LaudinsumeConvenant 

 l^lace that he may chuse in (Wood Land Except) and also liberty for the 

 commonage of three cows and Twenty sheep and one horse with neces- 

 sary wood and water for his use, on Conditions that he follow the trade 

 of whalling on this Island two years in all seasons thereof beginning 

 the first of March next Insuing; also he is to build upon his Laud and 

 v/hen he leaves Inhabiting upon this Island then he is first to offer his 

 Land to the Town at a valuable price and if the Town do not buy it he 

 may sell it to whom he please ; the commonage is granted only for the 

 time of his staying here."t At the same meeting Johu Savidge had a 



* Hist. Nantucket, p. 28. 



t There are most excellent reasons for concluding that Loper never went to Nan- 

 tucket. When the parties to whom grants were made settled there, their lots were 

 surveyed and laid out to them and the survey recorded. In Loper's case no after-men- 

 tion occurs of him in any place or manner, and in the list of proprietors and their 

 grants, made np in 1674, and forwarded to New York, his name is not mentioned. Not- 

 withstanding the islanders, in their desire to honor and perpetuate his name, called 

 two of their ships after him, those who are best judges in the matter concede that he 

 never had a residence there. One James Loper (or Looper) resided at Easthanipton 

 and carried on whaling from there prior to 1G75 (see petition of Shallenger, Hand & 

 Loper). Undoubtedly this is the man referred to in the Nantucket records. Up to the 

 year 1678, however, he still owned property in Easthampton. In regard to the Loper 

 mentioned by Felt (Annals of Salem, p. 223), and who has been supposed (see Savage's 



